Industry Canada to oversee 52 terms and conditions

NUNATSIAQ NEWS

This map shows the routes that Arctic Fibre’s marine cable backbone would take through the waters of the Canadian Arctic, establishing connections that would link Tokyo, New York City and London to their fibre optic system.

At the same time, the NIRB — after screening the project for nearly three months — has imposed 52 terms and conditions. (See document embedded below.)

They’ve sent that list to the office of James Moore, the federal industry ministry. Industry Canada is the federal department that would be responsible for authorizing and regulating the company’s Europe to Asia cable.

The $620-million in private financing required to construct the project’s backbone would be paid down with revenues received from customers located mainly in Asian countries like Japan, China and South Korea.

At the same time, about 52 per cent of Nunavut’s population — people living in Iqaluit, Cape Dorset, Hall Beach, Igloolik, Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven, and Taloyoak — would be connected automatically to the high-speed fibre optic cable, dramatically reducing their dependence on expensive satellite bandwidth.

One section of the backbone would run from a point near Cape Dorset past the east coast of Hudson Bay to Chisasibi. From that point, the fibre system would connect with New York City through Montreal.

To connect 23 non-backbone communities in Nunavut and Nunavik, Arctic Fibre proposes Industry Canada spend $230 million on a variety of spur lines and microwave hops.

However, Industry Canada has not yet responded to that idea and the non-backbone phase of the proposal is not covered in NIRB’s Jan. 23 screening decision.

And the NIRB decision only covers sections of undersea cable that would be laid inside the Nunavut settlement area, within the Qikiqtani and Kitikmeot regions.